Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Fri 20 May
★★★★☆
words: STEPHEN NOTTINGHAM
This new Welsh National Opera production relocates Mozart’s Così fan tutte to south Wales in the 1960s. Staff Director Benjamin Davis and Designer Max Jones visited Penarth and Barry Island as research. It’s all here: the pier, promenade, deckchairs, Italian ice cream, chips, seagulls, Punch and Judy and the fairground (where a volcano hints at the original Neapolitan setting).
The mood is set during the overture with some dog walking comedy, a tidy visual trick, and lush lighting design by Philip Gladwell. Cynical Don Alfonso is an end-of-pier impresario (Neal Davies), the two young men (Gary Griffiths and Robin Tritchler) are Italian sailors, while the visiting sisters (Camilla Roberts and Helen Lepalaan), to whom they are betrothed, check into Botticelli’s Ice Cream Parlour and Guesthouse – where chambermaid Despina (Claire Ormshaw) works.
Don Alfonso doubts the men’s fiancées will remain faithful in their absence (Così fan tutte translates as “women are like that”). The sailors disagree and a bet is arranged. They test their girlfriend’s fidelity by pretending to depart on a warship and wooing them in the disguise of Butlin’s Redcoats (Gary Griffith’s white shorts are the stuff of opera legend). The sisters eventually succumb, but complications arise when they opt for each other’s partners. Despite the music saying that this is a better match (mezzo to baritone; soprano to tenor), they revert to their original lovers after the deception is unveiled. A further ominous note is sounded by the south Wales downpour that cuts short the wedding celebrations.
Italian conductor Daniele Rustioni’s sure touch brings out Mozart’s orchestral colours in a crisp, clean manner; while he effectively opts to use just harpsichord to accompany the recitatives. The singing, especially from the four rising stars playing the two couples, is immaculate.
The opera is sung in Italian (with English and Welsh surtitles). The two other Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte (libretto) collaborations (The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni) will be performed in WNO’s 2011/2012 season.
A younger Neal Davies sang the part of one of the sailors in Calixto Bieito’s controversial Così fan tutte in 2000. That came with a ‘not suitable for children’ warning due to its explicit simulated onstage sex. However, in this production, the curtains are discreetly drawn and the innuendo is pitched like the saucy seaside postcard it resembles. Truth be told, Benjamin Davies’ production is probably the most entertaining Così fan tutte you’re ever likely to see.
You can see Cosi Fan Tutte at the Wales Millennium Centre on Fri 27 May, Thurs 2 June and Sat 4 June. For more info
